


Strawberry Champagne

by strawberrylemonade1225



Series: Voltron One Shots [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: 5+1 Things, Angst with a Happy Ending, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fluff and Angst, Galra Keith (Voltron), Insecurity, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining Lance (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-26
Updated: 2017-05-26
Packaged: 2018-11-05 00:25:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11002101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strawberrylemonade1225/pseuds/strawberrylemonade1225
Summary: A collection of the times that Lance just let words spill from his lips without a thought, unable to shut himself up.





	Strawberry Champagne

**Author's Note:**

> And this is the second part from Sour Honey, in Lance's point of view. This can be read without reading the other one, but it would make a bit more sense if you read both. (:  
> 

The first time was the day after Keith was booted from the Garrison.

It came as a shock to most people; they had thought that he was going to grow into one of the most stellar pilots, exploring the universe and things of that nature. The details of his expulsion weren't revealed, but of course, there were the rumors. 

Lance hated rumors.

Lance heard the first rumor when he walked into class the next morning after Keith was kicked out.

"I heard that he threw his chair at a teacher," a girl whispered as Lance passed by and he couldn't help the curiosity that bubbled up inside of him. He slowed his pace a little bit and listened in closer.

"He had to have done something serious to get kicked out of here," the girl's friend said back, and Lance laughed under his breath. What kind of a moron would get himself kicked out of the Garrison? The school was great, in Lance's opinion, and he had to sacrifice a lot to even get in; he sure enough wouldn't risk his scholarship like that kid had.

Lance continued on to his seat and sat down, sighing heavily to himself when he realized that he would see Keith yet again today. His sigh turned into a confident grin when he remembered that he could boast to Keith about his most recent test grade. He was proud of himself for that one.

The bell rang, symbolizing the beginning of class, yet there was no sign of a black mullet in front of Lance's eyes. He frowned, wondering if Keith was running late. He didn't let the fact that Keith never ran late bother him.

Thirty minutes into the lesson and Keith was still nowhere to be seen. Lance should be celebrating, he knows he should, but he can't help the worry that gnaws on his stomach. Keith could be sick, that's always a possibility.

Lance's frown deepens and he straightens up. Keith is his enemy, not his friend. He has no right nor no want to worry about him. Lance shakes his head as of to clear his thoughts.

The boy next to him sends him a worried glance and he realizes that the look on his face must make it look like he's stressed, and he sends back an easy going grin, focusing on the front of the class. He hasn't heard a single thing said this entire lesson. He didn't care about that at the moment. 

Class ended soon after and Lance knows he won't retain a single piece of information from that class. He can just go back and ask for help with it, and even though he knows that there's the chance that the teacher will give him a Disappointed Look, he doesn't care.

When he gets out to the hallway he's looking around for black hair and an annoying-looking face before he can stop himself. When he catches himself in the act, he immediately puts it to a stop, ducks his head, and walks to his next class quickly. He hears the hushed rumors being passed around in the hallway, but he hears the beating of his heart in his chest even more so.

Later, he confirms what he thought when he sees that his class has been moved. He jokes and cheers about it with Hunk, even suggests a celebration with their new teammate, but nothing of it feel authentic. He's more than happy to go back to his room later after classes are all done and his head feels empty.

"Hey, is something wrong?" Hunk asks him when they're in their room. Lance had been uncharacteristically quiet, the room mostly silent.

"Huh? Why would something be wrong, today's a great day!" He responds. He sees Hunk about to continue and he beats him to it, the words coming out like he is drunk and his awareness of what he is doing is lowered. They were said such in a rush that they were even a little slurred. "I'm great Hunk. I got what I wanted; I'm in fighter class now, ya know! Hasta la later, Keith, am I right? But what is not great, my friend, is everything else. Keith did this, Keith did that, he's still huge around here and he's gone! Keith threw this at that teacher, Keith said this to that administrator. Rumors, Hunk!"

Hunk reached a hand out to Lance, who had popped up from his bed and started pacing around the room. "Uh, Lance, are you-"

"I am fine because my rival is finally gone," he explained, running a hand through his hair and turning to face Hunk with wide eyes. "I am great... so why is it that I'm the only one who cares what Keith actually did, where the jerk is, how he is, and not the rumors?"

After a few moments of no response as Hunk took the time to think, Lance sat back down, elbows on his knees and face in his hands.

"Forget it. I talk too much. Just give me til morning... I'll be fine then. Goodnight, buddy," he said, laying down and turning to face the wall, leaving Hunk speechless again. The stress of the day caught up to Lance and he fell asleep quickly, the emptiness of his head seeping into his dream, having him dream of just that.

Nothing. 

\---

The second time was after a few weeks in space. After a few weeks of close proximity to Keith Kogane, Lance's rival.

(He doesn't think about the relief that filled his gut and the words that spilled from his mouth when he recognized Keith a few nights ago.)

Lance doesn't know how to feel about this situation. On one hand, he's in space! He's further out than people on Earth have even thought about reaching!

On the other hand... he's further out in space than people on Earth even know exists. The Garrison must have already reported him missing. He can't bear to picture one of the officers on his family's doorstep, hat held in hand, and voice carefully blank.

He can't bear to think about their reactions.

It was how unbearable these thoughts were that led him to the training deck, letting out frustration on anything and everything. He was attacking the gladiator rather violently when he caught a flash of something out of the corner of his eyes, and it was that flash that really pissed him off. He switched the gladiator off, annoyance in his voice and stormed out of the room, looking down the hallway in both ways, groaning when he saw nothing of importance. He walked back inside, switched the gladiator back on, and fought in rougher than before.

Later that night, Lance hung around in the dining hall later than everyone else, forehead pressing against the table in an attempt to ease the pounding of his heart against his skull. A few minutes later, he heard the collision of someone into something, and a muttered curse in a voice that Lance can pinpoint.

His head shoots up so quickly that it makes him dizzy, so he doesn't get the chance to call out to the person or following them, his only option being to sit there until his entire view stopped spinning.

By the time that came, he stood, slower as to not trigger the dizziness again, and makes his way to Pidge's room. He hears Hunk's voice coming from inside as well, and Lance is thankful because he really did not want to explain this twice.

The door slides in and Lance steps in dramatically, drawing both Hunk's and Pidge's eyes to him, the conversation dropping when they both saw the aggravated look on his face. They exchanged a look before looking back to him. Lance waited until the door closed behind him to start talking.

"First, it's the observation deck, then it's during training, then today when I'm training by myself, and a few minutes ago when I'm resting my head. Does Keith think he's sneaky or something? The bright red crop top jacket never fails to give him away!" he whines, walking over to Pidge's bed and moving her legs so there's an empty spot. He flops back dramatically onto the bed and she rolls her eyes.

"What are you complaining about?" she asks and Lance throws his hands up in the air.

"Keith! He's always watching me and whenever I try to confront him, he disappears on me! Is he trying to fight me? Or there's the possibility that- no, nevermind, that's not possible."

"What's not possible?" Hunk asks, having relaxed after finding out that the situation was not serious and continued fiddling with some device that Lance could not recognize.

"That Keith... likes me. As in gay likes me," Lance explains and Hunk looks up for a second at that. Pidge seems to become interested then. "The way he's acting now is reminding me a lot of myself at the Garrison, so that's why I'd even think that was a possibility."

Lance didn't realize the fault in his words until Pidge responded to them, and by that point, Lance felt a burning in his throat and a warm sensation in his stomach as if he had just consumed a bad brand of alcohol.

"You had a crush on Keith?"

"Yeah," Lance responds immediately but then bolts up onto his feet and his face burns red. "I mean- I just- before I knew he was a jerk! I-I... He's hot, that's it, I swear!"

Hunk raised his hands as if to calm him down, which worked a bit as Lance sat down, but his posture was still tight. He opened his mouth to continue defending himself but it didn't come out that way.

"Of course I admired him. He's the pilot of the generation, you know. I looked up to him, I wanted to get on his level. I hoped that maybe he'd notice my efforts, but that never happened and I got pissed, I guess, and declared this rivalry," he trailed off, and he looked at Pidge, shuddering at the expression on her face. "...I guess."

"Well, my friend, it sure sounds like you had a crush on Keith," Pidge confirmed, pushing up her glasses and grinning.

"Damn it."

"The bright side is that Keith may have a crush on you," Hunk offered, smiling brightly and Lance choked on air at that, face going red.

"C-Can we stop using the word 'crush', it's not like we're in middle school anymore," he complained, trying to change the topic.

"Oh, yes, allow me to make it more mature." Pidge cleared her throat. "Get some, Lance."

"Bye!" Lance jolted up and left the room at that, feeling his blush burn all the way down his face, pulling the collar of his jacket tighter around his neck in an attempt to hide it from both anyone who may be in the hallway, and from himself.

\---

Flash forward a whole five months later and the third time happens.

Lance is standing with his arms crossed across his chest and his foot tapping outside of the training room. Inside is Keith training with Shiro, both of them taking on the gladiator at a high level. They've been at it for over an hour now, and Lance would know because he showed up five minutes after they had booted it up.

...Not that Lance had stood there watching them for over fifty-five minutes.

(Lance had stood there watching Keith for over fifty-five minutes.)

Only twenty minutes pass before they switch off the death machine and Shiro says a few things to Keith and then heads towards the exit. Lance doesn't have enough time to hide in the shadows so he instead settles for turning his burning face to the side and covering half of it with his hand. Shiro spots him and walks over, but Lance doesn't look up at him.

"Lance? Are you here for training?" He asks and Lance makes a grunting noise into his hand and jerkily nods.

"The last time I observed someone training, I wasn't that red," Shiro comments with a laugh in his voice. "How long have you watched us? Or watched Keith, to be specific."

Lance's face flushed even more and he shook his head at Shiro before quickly ducking into the training room and walking in Keith's direction. He leaves a chuckling Shiro behind him with no regret.

Keith is facing away from him, so Lance settles on throwing his crop top jacket at him to get his attention. Keith turns towards him with a slight pout at that and Lance looks away, rubbing his neck.

"If you want or... ever have free time... you can come, you know," Lance mumbles the rest of it and Keith makes a confused noise.

"I can come what?"

Lance mumbles it again and Keith steps closer.

"Lance, you're going to have to speak up if-"

"You can come hang out with me! It can be everyone or just you and me, I don't care. You just... it was nice talking to you on that planet a bit ago... and I wouldn't mind hanging out like that again... if you'd... want to," Lance shouts out, looking at Keith, and bites his lip when Keith's face turns a little bit more pink, having been pink already due to training. "I think it would be... nice."

There's a brief moment of silence where Lance straightens out his posture and looks at Keith, who just stares back. Soon, a small smile is on his face and he nods.

"Yeah... I'd... I'd like that," he responds and Lance grins at that, nodding as well.

"Cool, I would too."

They smile at each other for another second before Lance waves goodbye, smacking himself on the forehead when he runs over what he said again in his mind, wondering when he lost all of his charms and just became a flustered teenage boy fretting over a crush.

\---

The fourth time still makes Lance feel protective to this very day.

It happened two months after the last one, and Lance and Keith had grown a lot closer as friends, and Lance now fully accepted the fact that he was head over heels for Keith Kogane. He just kept it a secret from him.

He busted into Keith's room shouting and holding a bag.

"Keith Kogane, I've had enough of your bad hygiene habits! Get your butt over here and put on this robe!" He yelled, dropping the onto the floor and looking around the room, seeing a Keith shaped lump on the bed. He walks over and pokes him before putting his hands on his hips. "Did you not hear me the first time? You're not going to get out of this one easily after forcing me to train with you for a straight week."

He gets no response and Lance drops the act, gently talking now. "Keith? Are you okay, buddy?"

Keith mumbles something and Lance calmly pulls back the blanket, being faced with a shaking Keith that has tears on his face, along with splotches of purple and large Galra ears. He looks at Lance, and Lance can see so much fear in them that it only takes a second before he's pulling Keith up into a sitting position, pulling his face into the crook of his neck and sitting across him, petting his hair and rocking slightly.

"It's okay, you're okay," he whispers to him, hushing him and holding him tighter when Keith's hand fist in the back of his shirt. "I'm here for you, I'm here as long as you need me. We don't need to talk about it if you don't want to. Is me talking helping you?"

He feels Keith nod against him and he takes a breath before launching into a story.

He's in the middle of explaining the horror that was Hunk, a great chef, meeting his mama, a great chef, and the two of them dominating the kitchen when he hears Keith sob laughing against him. He stops talking and Keith pulls away from him slightly, tears still on his face, but there's a smile on his face and his shaking has stopped. Lance feels his heart thud painfully against his chest and he moves his hands from Keith's hair to the sides of his face and Keith leans into one of his hands.

"You're beautiful," Lance whispered to him, reaching up with one of his hands to touch one of Keith's ears. He doesn't even realize what he said, and still doesn't understand when Keith's mouth drops open and his face turns red. "The ears, the purple, they don't change anything. You're still our Keith, you're still our beautiful Keith. The fact that you're part alien doesn't mean anything. If anything, it just means that a part of this beautiful galaxy is trapped inside you."

Keith teared up again at that point and his smile is wide across his face, which is one of the prettiest things that Lance has ever seen. He wipes away Keith's tears while he mumbles, "Thank you."

He says it may times after that, each time a little more quiet than the last and Lance holds him tightly throughout it all.

("How do I... use a headband with... ears like this?"

"Do I look like a furry, Keith?"

"Shut the hell up otherwise I'm projecting your beauty supplies into the sun!"

"OH GOD, HOW COULD I LIVE WITHOUT MY STRAWBERRY LOTION?!"

"Stop it, Lance!" Keith yells back, but he's laughing at Lance's dramatics, and that's all that matters to Lance right then.)

\---

The fifth time happened four months later.

The team was at a celebratory party that the residents of the planet had thrown, and Lance was currently chatting up a pretty alien. He swirled the cup in his hand to avoid taking a drink of it and put on his most charming grin when suddenly the alien is shoved away, replaced by a different alien. Lance furrows his eyebrows as the new alien pants to catch their breath before they start talking.

"My name is Flitnap, I am a royal guard. But that's not important," they say, waving their hands. "What is important is that it has come to my attention that there is still a Galra present."

"What? Where?" The annoyance in Lance melts away and is replaced with defensiveness. He is about to draw his weapon but Flitnap waves their hands in warning.

"One of our guards talked to him. He seems passive, but we need Voltron to remove him for he may be a spy. Follow me and I will show you his location," Flitnap explained, walking away hurriedly and Lance follows after, stance still rigid. 

He wonders how they allowed a Galra to slip past them, for the battle had finished a while ago, and before he knows it, he's standing little ways away from Keith. It seems that Keith hasn't noticed them, he's looking down into his drink and frowning, and Lance is almost so caught up in making heart eyes that he doesn't hear Flitnap speaking.

"There he is. A Galra. Enjoying our festivities," they shudder out. "Disgusting."

Lance follows the line of where the alien's pointing and frowns himself. "Wait, are you serious?"

"Obviously," they say, a confused look on their face.

"That's the red paladin, Keith," Lance explains, hoping silently that the conversation would just blow over smoothly, but from experience, he knew it wouldn't.

"You have let a Galra into Voltron?!"

"His name is Keith," Lance grinds out, folding his arms.

"I do not care what the Galra's name is!" Flitnap exclaims and Lance feels his blood boiling. "Just remove him from this party! He is scaring everyone!"

Lance glances over to see Keith take a sip of his drink, his ears twitching before he spits it back out, and an alien standing nearby laughs. Keith puts the drink down and flushes a bit. Lance looks back to Flitnap and crosses his arms tighter.

"Your guests seem to be enjoying his presence."

"Either Voltron removes this monster, or we will remove him!" Lance loses it then.

"Keith's species, race, whatever does not define him. Get that through your thick skull that he obviously is not going to hurt anyone, because he is literally the one who saved you." Lance says in a quiet but cold and hard voice, leaning down in a way to threaten Flitnap. It proves to be effective when they start shrinking back. "I am not going to stand here and listen to you call my family a monster. Next time your planet is in trouble, know that the person that saved you is someone that you threatened to kill. And he saved you for no other reason than to make sure that you lived. Goodbye."

With that, Lance hands Flitnap his drink and makes his way over to Keith. Keith has become to look anxious by then. He smiled slightly in relief when he saw Lance walking over, and Lance felt a smile grow on his face despite the anger that still lingered inside him.

"Hey, Keith," he greeted, then pointing over his shoulder with his thumb. "Do you want to get out of here? I know how you get around crowds."

Keith looked surprised for a moment before nodding, the two of them leaving together in a search for a quieter and calmer setting.

(Hopefully without any ignorant aliens, Lance couldn't help but think.)

\---

The first time that Lance found himself not saying much was five months after the party, five months after him and Keith had started dating.

It was morning, or the space equivalent of morning and Keith dragged himself into the dining hall. Lance was already sitting at the table eating when Keith plopped down beside him.

"Why did you just leave?" Keith sleepily mumbled into his food and Lance gave him a pointed look.

"I said that I was going to leave you there if you didn't get up in the next thirty ticks."

"That's too short!" Keith exclaims, rubbing at his eyes.

It's only the two of them in there at the moment, having been late to breakfast, everyone else heading off to do their own thing just as Lance walked in.

"Well, it's not my fault that your sleeping schedule is terrible," Lance argues back and Keith glares at him before continuing to eat. Lance keeps his eyes on him for a few seconds longer.

Keith's hair is pulled back into a greasy ponytail, and there's food goo on his face. It's kinda gross, and Lance knows this too, with how careful he is with his own appearance, but he finds himself not caring. He looks up to Keith's eyes, occasionally flickering between yellow and the endless purple. The eyes that always squint when he's confused or brighten up when he's excited, and Lance feels himself slipping a bit further into love. He's broken from his thoughts when Keith shyly looks over at him, eyes half closed and face flushed.

"...What is it? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"It's... it's nothing."

Keith hums and slowly looks back down to his food and Lance looks away.

"Hey, Keith?"

"Hm?"

"I'm gonna ask you to marry me under the stars someday."

Lance feels Keith's stare on the side of his head without actually seeing it. Out of the corner of his eye, he does see Keith smiling down at the table.

"And I'm gonna say 'yes' to that proposal someday."

Lance reaches under the table and grabs Keith's hand, lacing their fingers, drunken off of love.

The warmth of imaginative alcohol settles in his stomach, spreading the warm feeling throughout his body, making him, in the simplest of words, completely and utterly happy.

("I hope you know I am a very demanding man. The ring you get me had better be incredible."

"How about I get you a cherry flavored ring pop, babe?"

"Lance, you know me so well.")


End file.
